WASHINGTON, DC.- FotoWeek DC and area museums will team up to create an unprecedented, world premiere digital video slide show. During FotoWeek DC's inaugural week-long photography festival, visitors will be treated to a dazzling display of large scale projections of photographs selected from the collections of some of Washington, D.C.'s most honored institutions, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, Corcoran Gallery of Art and College of Art + Design, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the Newseum.

These artfully sequenced, multi-story projections will create the largest HD slide show to date and exhibit some of the world's most compelling photographic images -- from landscapes, to portraits; from history to art to science. "This is an opportunity for museums to reach audiences in new ways," says Merry Foresta, Director of the Smithsonian Photography Initiative, "and present photographic images using exciting, and innovative technologies." Each projection site will become a focal point for viewers to experience on a grand scale the ephemeral magic that comes when light meets surface. Theo Adamstein, FotoWeek DC founder and board president, says "This is a powerful and unique project where architecture, photography and light combine to create a new medium."

FotoWeek DC partner Herring Media Group will transform the city into a nocturnal urban gallery. Calling the format "Heroic Media," Executive Producer and Designer Marc Herring, says "our concept is to use cinema-scale architectural installations to transform buildings into immersive theaters of light and image." With the help of Quince Imaging's all-digital production platform the District will engage visitors in a new way.

NightGallery DC will kick off the week with the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian's presentation of historic photographic images of American Indian leaders, Native delegations to Washington, D.C. (both past and present), classic images that document transitions in Native life during the early photographic era, and contemporary portraits of American Indians today, all visually juxtaposed to the U.S. Capitol. The Smithsonian American Art Museum will present the only indoor projections of the week in the atrium of the Kogod Courtyard featuring contemporary landscape photography. The Newseum will feature Pulitzer Prize-winning photographs on its 74-foot-tall First Amendment facade; the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum will project portraits of Holocaust survivors onto the outside of its Hall of Remembrance. The Corcoran College of Art + Design will project works by students in photography and its new media program on the Corcoran's New York Avenue exterior.

In Georgetown, East Banc, Inc. will sponsor projections of the work from FotoWeek DC's photographic competition onto the walls of FotoWeek Central located at 3338 M Street, NW.

Also in Georgetown, the Smithsonian Photography Initiative will present a street level slide show of images from a new online project, "click! photography changes everything!"

Finally, the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History joins NightGallery DC to celebrate its grand reopening with a projection exhibition highlighting treasures from its collection, the Star-Spangled Banner and patriotic images.
The projections begin at dusk and are free and open to the public.